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Highrise
Highrise '''is a neutral faction in the Tahc YBWR world in control of Gateway, the last space station having survived The Great Blackout in 3907. History '''Highrise is comprised of the survivors of multiple space stations and ships that were caught in the middle of The Great Blackout in 3907 reunited in the last station that retained it's structural integrity. The survivors of different sides of the conflict put aside their differences in an uneasy truce to repair and co-habit in the last safe environment in orbit of the planet. For the past century they have made their mission to clear out the orbit of the world of the cloud of debris orbiting the planet. This is to allow once more for space exploration and development to be made. Since the kessler syndrome event, communications with the surface have been scarce. These communications were mostly with the rare expeditions on the Atlansean continent. The major powers of the world decided to ignore the insignificant space colony that still survived despite the harsh conditions, discarding it as legends brought back by adventurers to impress the masses. Over time they have refined spaceships and protection technologies to help them in their quest of clearing the debris field. In the year 3998 they have opened the first window of descent and ascension to the continent directly below the station. The ship sent to the surface returned with news that the continent underneath was inhabitable, scorched by the fires of the Atlansean War. Now at the beginning of the year 4000, facing a lack of new resources intake for their demand in rare earth metals, they are forced to turn back toward the world below. Government The Highrise government is formed by a technocratic council decision making body overlooked by a democratically elected individual named Station Commander. There is a rotation of the staff of the council and of the station commander every 2 years. Candidates to the post of Station Commander must be approved by the current council before being allowed into the candidates for the post pool. During the bi-annual rotation, each departments of the station internally verify who is their most skilled and knowledgeable individual and props that person, regardless of his or her sex and ethnicity, as a councilor. If the population of the station is unhappy with one of the individuals of the council or the commander and poll results indicates that more than 40% of the population would like to see change within the government, a referendum is organized to count the will of all of Gateway's citizens in that decision. Economy Their home station has the facilities to provide for their food, air and energy requirements, allowing them to live on their own in isolation from the planet. However, this is not enough. Metals and materials of diverse kinds are needed to produce new ships and extensions to the station. To fill these material needs, they harvest and recycle the debris in orbit to extract the required metals and goods required for the day-to-day operation of the station. It also has a small spaceship producing industry that produces the most advanced spaceships in the known world, made with the expertise of a century living in the void of space. External Relations The destruction of the original country of the space station, Lutece, in the Atlansean War, the subsequent communications outage caused by The Great Blackout, and it's location in Geo-synchronous orbit above a scorched continent have all contributed in leaving Highrise isolated. Ships voyaging in orbit have picked up communications from the surface, but are under a strict radio-silence policy toward the surface. Some surface powers have detected objects going at varying speeds within the debris fields, indicating the presence of some beings out there, but have not managed to make contact with them. This isolation has led the Highrisian people to become suspicious and distrusting of those they now call "earth-walkers". Society The society of Highrise can be described in one word as post-cyberpunk. It has embraced the transhumanist movement, and it shows in the day-to-day life of it's inhabitants. People have learned to live with cybernetic and mechanical implants as well as biological modifications to augment their bodies to live better lives. It is not uncommon to meet a passerby with a robotic arm or with cat-like irises allowing them to see in the dark. Gene therapies have eradicated all hereditary diseases of the youngest generation, thus enhancing greatly it's quality of life and it's members endurance to biological and chemical factors. Some of the older generations have also decided to receive these genetic enhancements. There is no such thing as poverty aboard Gateway. Each citizen is given a choice of career path to undertake at the age of 16. One may change career every 8 years if they so desire. An average person of the second generation to live aboard the station will work up to the age of 80 and live comfortably up to their death. The life expectancy estimated of the average person augmented person is 110 and the non-augmented one's is 96. Culture Most of the inhabitants of the station are not superstitious. However, legends of the world below being filed with magical beings and strange energies have pervaded the tales for children has the generations passed without contact to the ground to verify their vision of the planet's inhabitants. Due to the restricted resources of the station, digital arts have flourished whereas material art is a rarity. These same restrictions have pushed the people to adopt a spartan attitude toward material wealth and a utilitarian society. This spartan life-style has however not touched the social aspect of the station. Equal rights and freedom within the law are core value of this society. It's people have an open mind and a progressive attitude in their policies and ideas. Censorship is unheard of within the station. Technology The Gateway station is the hub of all of their technology. Predictable, as it is their sole home. Over the time, Highrise has developed impressive refining technologies to recycle all of the debris brought to the station. These debris, with the refining process are separated in all of their molecular components and redistributed to the different services and installations across the station. In the last century, they have become master shipbuilders, miniaturizing fusion reactor technology to fit them into nearly all of their ship classes, thus removing the need for solar panels that increase the risks of collision with the surrounding debris. Still, solar panels are sometimes installed on ships to give them an edge when they need additional power input for energy-intensive operations. The additional power provided by these reactors allow them to fit ion thrusters on the smaller and lighter drones, whereas larger ships and drones can now fit plasma thrusters, all without the need for massive and huge solar panels to provide the enormous power needs of these modules. These modules' fuel efficiency allow them to go and produce incredible amount of delta-v (speed changes) with little fuel. Armament is something that has been left aside. No further technologies other than the lasers, projectile and plasma weaponry of the preceding century have been developed since the foundation of Highrise after The Great Blackout. Protection however has not been left aside. In an hostile environment as the one their ships work in, developing protective technologies that are not in need to be constantly repaired or replaced has been a must. Therefore, in the year 3920 they have discovered a form of energy shielding that makes an object within the field of operation of a shield generator impervious to physical damage coming from impacts, disintegrating any object entering it's field of effect. This energy field also has the side effect of absorbing energy bursts that it receives, thus protecting it from energy and light based weaponry. However this energy absorption may result in an overloading of the capacitor of the generator if the spike in energy is great and is not dissipated quickly enough. Category:Factions